Final Fantasy VII Guardian of Gaia

**Guardian of Gaia**

**Summary: **Killed in a car accident, a young woman is saved by Minerva, the Goddess of the planet Gaia. Shell becomes the new guardian of Gaia, which is a huge responsibility due to what all she knows. Thing is, Shell's from a different dimension. Now how is she going to react when she meets characters and people, including a silver-haired man? Takes place just a couple months after Dirge of Cerberus.

_**Chapter 1**_

They say that death is the end of your physical life. But as for your soul, they say it goes on and on, different with each reincarnation, sometimes the same features and all. Sometimes you can look completely different, or you can look the same as you did to the person before. Death is not always painful. Death can be painless and beautiful, the most beautiful thing in the world.

A lot of people aren't ready to die.

Myself included. I suppose I should start out with how this whole thing started.

It started with a car.

I had been driving along the Golden Gate bridge for a booking, of course, for my new novel that I had just published the week before. I'm an author and being only 21, I've gotten pretty famous. It's nice, but I'm not the type to go brag and brag about how great I am like I know some authors do. I write mostly horror and/or supernatural, once or twice I've written about fantasy or the like. It's really nice to have a lot of money and not have to worry about financial problems.

It was just a normal day.

That's when a car in the other lane lost control and swerved into the lane I was in, crashing right into my car. It threw me a bit ways, causing my face to collide with the steering wheel and glass to fly against me.. Everything stopped and I groaned, lifting my head from the steering wheel. Blood seeped from a cut on my temple, along with other various cuts on my face and neck.

I had looked up to the side, only to watch as a semi slammed into me and then pushed me right over the broken railing, sending me down to the water below. I didn't get any time to react as the vehicle hit the water full force, jerking me violently. I coughed as the car began to fill up with water and lifted my head, getting as much air as I could before I was fully submerged in the cold water.

I pulled on the handle of the door, only realizing that the doors had been jammed. I banged at the window as hard as I could, holding my breath as long as I could. I couldn't die here!

I lost control of myself and my lips parted, allowing water in and filling my lungs. I felt my chest tightening up, my heart pounding against my chest. I began to feel dizzy and my vision was starting to blur.

I was dying.

_No..._I thought, trying to gasp, but only more water filled my lungs. Next thing I knew, my eyes closed and I went slack as my last breath left me.

That's all I saw and felt was cold and dark. Was this what death felt like? The afterlife? If there really was one. I found myself opening my eyes slowly and I seemed to be sinking into an endless darkness, my hair flowing around me. Suddenly, I saw a faint light in front of me and a woman's hand reached out to me.

"_Take it." _a woman's voice, sweet as silk, said to me.

My hand twitched and I slowly reached up, struggling to grasp the woman's hand. Then, I finally was able to grasp the hand and with a strong, yet firm grip, I was pulled out of the sinking darkness and found myself in a beautiful green-like area. There were fields all around me and there was a green river close by. I looked around, wondering where I was. For some unknown reason, this place seemed familiar to me.

"You're in the Lifestream." the same voice from before spoke.

I turned around, seeing a beautiful young woman around my age. She was a little bit shorter than me and had long, brown hair pulled back into a braid, with a pink ribbon tied right where her hair came from. She had deep green eyes and a smile on her face. She wore a pink shin-length dress and a red jacket, along with brown shoes.

My eyes widened.

"You're..." I whispered.

She smiled more. "You know who I am, Shell."

"Aerith...h...how do you know my name...?" I asked her, confused, surprised, shocked. I was all of those emotions.

"I've known your name since you drowned. The Goddess told me to help you." Aerith replied and she held out her hand to me. "Come with me, I want to show you something."

Still at all my emotions, I took her hand, wanting to know what was going on exactly. Aerith's skin was soft to the touch. She led me along the green river. "We know you are from an entirely different dimension and we know that you know everyone. We thought it would be best if we picked someone who knew about the world, and yet, had never been here before." She explained to me.

"So you only picked me because I'm practically an expert?" I asked her.

Aerith nodded. "It's time we had another Guardian."

"Guardian?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, a Guardian is a person who wields the power to protect the Planet. There are no more Cetra, but I am still a great influence, even from here in the Lifestream." She replied. "So...we decided it would be best if we picked someone to be a Guardian to the Planet, a protector. Someone who will protect the Planet no matter what."

I took in her words, listening to them. It seemed like a pretty big responsibility. Could I do it? Or would it be too hard for me? "It seems like a really big responsibility..." I said.

Aerith chuckled a bit. "I know and that's why I believe you can do it."

I thought about it for what seemed like an hour, but it was only minutes. "I suppose I could do it..." I nodded.

She smiled and suddenly pulled me in close, kissing my cheek softly. "I know you can. Here." She placed something warm and round into my hand. I looked down, opening my hand more and gasped when I saw a large, marble like object.

Materia.

But...it was white.

"Aerith-."

"Take it. You'll need it more than I do." She said with a soft smile. "It belongs to you now. Shell...you need to find a lot of items." She squeezed my shoulder gently and then without warning, gently pushed me back and I found myself falling backwards. I fell backwards into a river, but not the same one that was green. This one was more white. I seemed to be sinking, like I did into the endless darkness.

"_Help them." _

And then I fell.

…...

When I opened my hazel eyes, slowly, as if I had been asleep for a long time. I seemed to be laying on something soft as well and something brushed across my face. I moved my head away to get away from whatever was touching me, but it brushed across my nose this time. I opened my eyes fully, seeing flowers in front of me.

"Huh?"

I grunted softly as I sat up, wincing and holding my left arm against my chest. I then realized it was broken. I looked around my surroundings, finding myself in a worn down, but beautiful church. I was sitting in a small area of flowers, right under a hole above me. I squinted as rays of sunshine came down, brightening up the church.

The church oddly looked familiar.

I slowly stood up, sliding the White Materia into the pocket of my jacket. I coughed slightly, feeling cold. As I walked a couple steps, I realized what church I was in. "Oh...no...I'm HERE..." I whispered, my eyes widening. That's when I felt a massive pain suddenly erupt in my forehead, as if someone was banging a hammer against my forehead. "A-aggghhh...!" I fell to my knees, gasping and groaning in pain. I felt something trickle down from my forehead and felt it with my good hand.

When I pulled my hand back, my eyes widened as I saw a black liquid dripping from my face. "G-geostigma..." I gasped, the world becoming blurry. I fell onto my side, my vision going black.

There was the sound of doors opening and a small gasp. "Tifa!"

My vision cleared up a bit, but it was incredibly blurry. I saw two females running towards me and the larger female put a hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay?"

That was the last thing I heard before letting out a sigh and going unconscious.

…...

**Third Person POV**

"Tifa!"

The young woman heard Marlene's gasp and the call of her name. Her soft, red eyes glanced ahead of them and she was surprised to see another young woman, possibly just a couple years younger than Tifa herself. She was lying on her side, eyes barely open. Tifa rushed over to her, Marlene close behind. Tifa put her hand on the woman's shoulder, eyes full of concern. "Are you okay?" She asked.

Tifa then heard the young woman sigh and her eyes closed completely as she went limp. Tifa checked for a pulse, finding one. Tifa didn't understand. Who was this woman? She had long, dark brown hair, like Tifa herself, but it was longer, reaching her thighs. Most of her bangs hid her face and she noticed something was on the girl's skin.

Tifa brushed the girl's bangs away from her face and gasped when she saw it.

The stigma.

"She has the stigma..." Marlene said softly, looking over at Tifa.

Tifa pursed her lips, looking down at the girl again. She just couldn't bear the thought of leaving this sick girl here. She could die. "Stand back, Marlene." Tifa said and picked up the girl very easily, lifting her onto her back and situating her.

"Do you think we can help her?" Marlene asked.

"I hope so." Tifa replied softly, before she and Marlene left, going back to 7th Heaven.


End file.

Final Fantasy VII, Adventure, Romance